Governments and developing agencies promote participatory approaches in solving common pool resource problems, such as in the water sector. Two main participatory approaches have been applied separately, namely negotiation and mediation. In this paper the authors apply the Role-Playing Game that is a component of the Companion Modeling approach, a negotiation procedure, and the Cooperative Game Theory (Shapley value and the Nucleolus solution concepts) that can be mirrored as a mediated mechanism to a water allocation problem in the Kat watershed in South Africa. While the absolute results of the two approaches differ, the negotiation and the cooperative game theory provide similar shares of the benefit allocated to the players from various cooperative arrangements. By evaluating the two approaches, the authors provide useful tips for future extension for both the Role-Playing Games and the Cooperative Game Theory applications.

This book introduces the companion modelling approach by presenting the stance that underpins it, the methods and tools used with stakeholders and the specific role of models during the process. It addresses the means to deal with the different levels of decision-making and to take into account the various power relationships. It proposes a methodology to assess the impact of the approach on the stakeholders involved in the process. The book includes 27 case studies and 7 teaching tools that describe the successful use of the approach in a variety of settings or teaching contexts. It is intended for researchers working on rural development or renewable resources management, as well as students and teachers.

This book includes chapters by experts from developing and developed countries that apply game theory to issues in natural resources and the environment, demonstrating the usefulness of game theory in policy-making and appealing to a wide audience.

This pocket-sized reference on key environmental data for over 200 countries includes key indicators on agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, energy, emission and pollution, and water and sanitation. The volume helps establish a sound base of information to help set priorities and measure progress toward environmental sustainability goals.

This book is the first of its kind on the emerging topic of source-to-sea management. It showcases different applications of the concept to improve the environmental health of freshwater, land and coastal and marine systems, drawing upon research performed across Europe, Africa and Asia. Improved management of land, freshwater, coasts and oceans is a key environmental challenge of our time. It is needed to prevent the millions of tons of plastic and other pollutants that enter the ocean from land-based sources each year. It is essential to reduce highly polluted, oxygen-depleted “dead zones” in our coastal and marine waters. Extensive diversions of the flows of rivers need to be avoided to ensure that little or no water reaches the sea. Source-to-sea (S2S) is an emerging concept to improve understanding of how to effectively manage freshwater, land, coastal and marine systems. The collected works in this book explore experiences with S2S management in diverse regions across Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, addressing sedimentation, nutrient and pharmaceutical pollution in freshwater and marine aquatic environments, and marine debris on the coasts and in the seas. It provides key insights into a few areas that should be of interest to those who want to learn from the lessons from case studies of applied S2S interventions. This book will be of great value to scholars, students and researchers interested in global freshwater, coastal zone, ocean management, sustainable development and environmental governance. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal Water International.